‘I’m not only trying to inspire black kids but people from all races,’ says the South African flanker Siya Kolisi.
Photograph: Gianluigi Guercia/AFP/Getty Images

Siya Kolisi knows the meaning of what it truly is to suffer. As a small boy surviving in the township of Zwide near Port Elizabeth on South Africa’s east coast, he ate irregularly. His grandmother and young mother were unable to put food on the table every day. It was proper, aching hunger, something no child in the 21st century should have to experience.

Kolisi’s mother, Phakama, was 16 when Siya was born; his father, Fezakele, was in his final year of school. After giving birth to two more children from another relationship, Phakama died when Kolisi was 15 leaving his late grandmother, Nolulamile, to raise him.

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“Times were tough when I was little and often there wasn’t food. I would go to bed starving,” Kolisi says. “Sometimes we didn’t have enough money to pay my primary school fees, which were only R50 (£3) a year.”

On Saturday, Kolisi will complete a remarkable journey from Zwide to the head of the players’ tunnel at Ellis Park, South Africa’s spiritual home of rugby. There, the proud Xhosa man with a smile as dazzling as his tackling is brutal, will become the first black captain to lead the Springboks in a Test in the series opener against England.

There will be a certain serendipity in seeing Kolisi wearing the same No 6 jersey that the former president Nelson Mandela so famously donned at the 1995 World Cup final.

Madiba’s appearance at Ellis Park 23 years ago, kitted in one of Springbok captain Francois Pienaar’s jerseys, lifted a nation, and for a brief period, united a country. Kolisi’s elevation to one of the most important jobs in South Africa has similarly given rugby a boost at a time when the Springboks embark on a new phase of – literally – changing the face of the national team.

Siya Kolisi has won 28 caps for the Springboks since making his debut in 2013. Photograph: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile via Getty Images

By 2019, coach Rassie Erasmus is expected to pick a team that has at least a 50% black player representation. Starting with a black captain, whose appointment is justified both as a player and a leader, is an emphatic statement from the coach that transformation will be taken seriously on his watch.

And Kolisi, a muscular 26-year-old openside flanker is going to drive that transformation from within because in many ways he is the aspirational post-apartheid South African.

Rising from poverty to the pinnacle of a sport that until 1992 was the sporting embodiment of white minority rule, he has also legally adopted his two half siblings, married a white woman and is a loving dad to two mixed-race children. The rainbow nation could not have dreamed up a more perfect mentor to show South Africa how its complicated past can be overcome.

“I don’t shy away from where I have come from and I’m aware that my story is a typical South African story in some ways. It’s my motivation,” Kolisi says. “Yes, being a professional sportsman can be tough and occasionally you question if it’s all worth it. But then I just think about where I’ve come from and about the people that look up to me. For me to be able to help people inspired by me, I have to play every week. That is my duty.

“I’m not only trying to inspire black kids but people from all races. When I’m on the field and I look into the crowd, I see people of all races and social classes. We as players represent the whole country.

“I tell my team-mates that you should never play just to represent one group. You can’t play to be the best black player or to be the best white player to appeal to a community; you have to play to be the best for every South African. We represent something much bigger than we can imagine.”

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Kolisi was spotted at an under-12 tournament in Zwide and in a life-changing moment, offered a rugby scholarship to the prestigious Grey High School in Port Elizabeth, which produced cricket legend Graeme Pollock and England’s 2003 World Cup winner Mike Catt.

Rugby was initially Kolisi’s best way of communicating while his academic studies suffered due to difficulties with speaking English. “There was a language barrier. I struggled with my academic work and I was scared to speak as a result,” Kolisi admits.

“I would say one or two words in English and complete a sentence in Xhosa. But the guys were accepting and Nick Holton, who became a good friend, knew some Xhosa. So he helped me speak English and I helped him with his Xhosa. I knew him from rugby trials and we have been friends ever since.”

Being on a sports scholarship might seem like a dream but it comes with pressure. The school expected Kolisi to put Grey rugby above all else, but he still yearned to play for a local Zwide amateur rugby club called African Bombers.

It was forbidden in case of injury, but Kolisi could not resist sneaking in the odd game even though he played against men 10 years older. Inevitably, he ran into some trouble.

Siya Kolisi with his wife Rachel and their son Nicholas. Photograph: Foto24/Getty Images

“I injured my ankle playing for African Bombers at the end of the school season and it was so swollen that I couldn’t walk,” Kolisi says. “To hide it I had to stay in bed on the Monday. I eventually said that I injured it playing soccer in the street. I was out for three months.”

Another time, the school first XV was scheduled to play in one of South Africa’s many Easter holiday schoolboy festivals. Kolisi wanted to go on his first trip to Europe after a friend’s family had offered to pay for him. He held off telling the rugby coach until the 11th hour, an unpopular move, but Kolisi remained steadfast that he wanted to see the world and not only play rugby.

It is that determination and, latterly, an understanding of his role in society which has taken him to this point in his career.

At 26, Kolisi has embraced professional and personal responsibility, usually expected of someone older. He spent 18 months going through a tough legal process to adopt his younger siblings, Liyema and Liphelo, who were in foster care in Zwide after his mother died.

“In 2012 when I was in camp with the Boks, I went to Zwide to look for them because I hadn’t seen them in years,” Kolisi says.

When I walk out I want to be the best flanker in the world. If you think in racial terms, you are limiting your horizons

“I found a cousin who told me where my brother and sister were. They were at school at the time but I came back later and met them. You can imagine how emotional it was.

“My little sister didn’t know me. She had been crawling when I last saw her. I told the woman taking care of them that I was going to take them for December holidays that year, which I did. But afterwards I said I can’t send them back.”

“I had to go through a legal process, which I started after that holiday. It took about 18 months, but I finally legally adopted them.”

Through it all, his now-wife Rachel and tight circle of friends, which includes Springbok hard man and 2017 captain Eben Etzebeth, have stood by his side.

Siya Kolisi on a school visit in Port Elizabeth. Photograph: Handout/Gallo Images

It is Rachel who provided the support and strength he needed to take on his challenging roles as an adoptive guardian to the siblings he hardly knew, captain of the Super Rugby franchise the Stormers, and of course, father to his own children Nicholas (named after Holton) and Keziah.

“Spiritually I have grown a lot because my wife is a churchgoing person and she has guided me,” Kolisi says. “It was something I struggled with when I was younger.

“Church and spirituality keeps me calm and peaceful and my family gives me great joy. When they are happy then I am happy. Rachel has been amazing because she took all of this on and taken some racial abuse on social media, which isn’t easy.

“Honestly it doesn’t affect me because I know what we have is real, how much she means to me and how much she means to our family. Also, things at home have forced me to be a better man and a role model. I want to set a positive example – I want to be my kids’ hero and an inspiration for all South Africans.”

The bond Kolisi shares with Etzebeth underlines his inclusive nature and ability to straddle the racial divide in South Africa. He brings people on either side closer together.

The pair could not have come from more disparate backgrounds with Etzebeth raised in Cape Town’s blue collar, white, conservative northern suburbs.

As with his Grey schoolmates, Kolisi could hardly speak Afrikaans and Etzebeth could barely speak English. But they shared a love of rugby and found mutual respect as people.

“Despite our obvious differences we saw each other as people and I saw the true person he was,” Kolisi says. “Eben would have myself and [Stormers hooker] Scarra Ntubeni around for braais at his place and it was a totally different environment to the township, but it wasn’t something we tried to force.

“For us, it was just normal and our genuine friendship has opened the eyes of many people to understanding that you need to see people for who they are because this is the essence of South Africa.

“I don’t think of myself in racial terms. When I walk out on the field I want to be the best flanker in the world. If you think in racial terms, you are limiting yourself and your horizons.

“Even though I’m black, I touch and inspire many people from all races. As rugby players we have a beautiful platform to showcase what being a South African could be.”